Threads: Zlata’s Ukrainian Shirt, by Lina Maslo, narrator Natalie Payne

 

Available January 23, 2024      AUDIO   10 m

Past meets present?

It's hard not to draw parallels of this story from the starving period in Ukraine in the 1930's with what is happening today. Based on her own family's experiences, author Lina Masio gives us a poignant story of one girl's experiences in the starving time. It's a story of not just deprivation, but one of family and love of not just each other but their culture and their hopes for a better future. You'll learn a bit of Ukrainian culture as you read, as well as the strength of human character. I had the audio version and it's a mere 10 minutes but it's 10 minutes that will stick. As we watch human despair in so many areas of the world today, we're reminded that this isn't the first time such horrors happened. The human desire for freedom and life shine through, however, as symbolized by Zlata's lovely Ukrainian shirt. Zlata means "golden" in Ukrainian, btw. It's survival perhaps is the strongest symbolism of the book.

Written for a young audience, the story somehow manages to tell the story unflinchingly without resorting to graphic imagining. The goal is to introduce us to the past with a subtle nudge of how it applies to our current and future lives. I liked the subtle sound effects in the audio version although, I must admit, I rather wished I'd gotten a hard copy for the illustrations as I'm sure the mind-pictures in my adult mind were much more frightening than the actual scenes visualized. The idea of fathers simply disappearing may be a tough one for children but it isn't dwelt on, I noted. In addition, the fact additional colors were used in future shirts and designs, not just the red and black, is symbolism in a simple form. The narrator has an adult voice, btw, but remember that this is a recollection, so it makes sense an adult sounding voice is narrating. 

Bottom line, I found it a satisfying, warm, hopeful read/listen. It may serve to open up discussion of then and now while sharing bits of Ukrainian culture and design with us. Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio - #MacmillanYoungListeners for making this sneak peek available to me. The cover is lovely and as full of hope as human longings.